If you live in an older home that was built before the 1940′s, your chimney was probably built without a clay tile liner. Starting in the 1940′s clay tile liners were built into the chimney during construction, and in more recent times many homes are built with prefabricated metal chimneys rather than with traditional brick and mortar ones.Read More

When you are considering installing a chimney liner, be sure to plan to include proper insulation in your design. You or your installer may be tempted to cut corners by putting a chimney liner inside the flue without insulating it, since it is cheaper and easier to do it that way, but the benefits of chimney liner insulation far outweigh the small cost of doing it properly.Read More

If you have a wood burning fireplace inside your home, you can probably do some simple things to your fireplace and chimney to improve your home’s energy efficiency. Some of these are free and will give you an instant return on your time investment, while others can cost a bit of money.Read More

A chimney liner covers the inside surface of the flue, which is the opening inside the chimney that carries smoke and gases from the fireplace or other fuel burning appliance and safely vents them outside. Clay tile, cement, stainless steel and aluminum are common chimney liner materials. Here are seven benefits of a stainless steel chimney liner:Read More

If your fireplace is not drawing well, you need to take steps to correct whatever is causing the problem. A badly drawing fireplace, or any other badly drawing fuel burning appliance, is a safety and maintenance hazard. If your fireplace does not draw well, it does not burn your firewood efficiently, so you get more creosote buildup inside your chimney, you waste money on fuel, you are likely to smell smoke inside your house.Read More

If you have a standard fireplace that vents up a brick and mortar masonry chimney, you probably enjoy building a roaring fire on a cold winter night and cozying up with a glass of fine wine or a good book or somebody special. You may not know that your fireplace is an air polluting energy hog.Read More

The inside of the chimney is not something most homeowners spend a lot of time thinking about, at least as long as everything appears to be working properly. But, chimney problems can begin long before you are aware of them and if you ignore them too long you could endanger your family’s health and safety.Read More

If you have a wood burning fireplace, a fireplace insert, or a woodstove, you may be curious to know what is the best firewood to use. The simplest answer is that you should use the driest, best seasoned wood you can get. Dry wood will burn more completely than green wood, resulting in a hotter fire with less smoke. A cold, smoky fire that comes from using unseasoned wood will make more creosote build up in your chimney liner than you would have with dry firewood.Read More

There are a lot of animal lovers out there who enjoy watching the birds and squirrels play around in their back yards. Then, there are those who like animals but curse the squirrel that keeps getting into the bird feeder. There are also those who would rather not have anything at all to do with these critters.Read More

Snuggling up in front of the fire on a cold winter night can be like a tropical paradise sometimes. Nothing feels better than your fingers, toes and nose thawing out in front of a natural fire. However, if the proper safety is not taken when using the fireplace and chimney, then things can go wrong; quickly.Read More